This "new" middle-class was frustrated with its lack of participation or even access to Brazil's politics. They began a movement and demanded a place in the nation's government. Organized unions and strikes by various groups and dissidents encountered intense repression from the government. Propping up Brazil's Inequalities

There existed a "two-faced" political system in Brazil that took shape at the beginning of the twentieth century -- a "Jekyll and Hyde" government. First, there existed, supposedly, the official system of the constitutional United States of Brazil; then there was the actual system of unwritten agreements among local bosses, or, as they were referred to -- the colonels. Coronelismo it was called, and it stood up for autonomy of the individual states. By another name it was labeled the "politics of the governors." Under it, the local "patron-client networks" chose the state governors, who in turn selected the president.

The wealthier and more populated states exploited the system and exchanged the federal presidency between them for decades. The system fused the state authority groups around the rich, elite families that had been original members of the monarchy.

These oligarchies controlled the economy, the government,...

Records show that, during the 1920's, only 2% - 4% of the population of the country could vote.
Popular Response?

It must first be remembered that the Brazilian republic was not born of popular uprising against a suppressive "foreign" government as was the United States. As a matter of fact, the regime formed in the 1890's could not risk immediate popular elections. It was birthed of military force and maintained itself by military force. This new federal republic was, at best, unstable.

Secondly, the control of the state-level government was completely in the hands of the oligarchies, or "patron-client networks." These groups, controlled mostly by the coffee-growers, made agreements among and between themselves and, as mentioned, controlled who was elected president of the country.

But, let's not forget that it was the working class, combined with disillusion in the junior ranks of the military that swept GetulioVargas to power in 1930. Both groups, disgusted with government corruption in support of coffee growers during the Great Depression, rebelled.

Once in power, Vargas, popular, charming, and ruthless, based his power in the new urbanized working class that had helped bring him to power.